Navy gets first woman helicopter pilot

NEW DELHI: After the IAF and Army, the Navy has now also begun inducting women as helicopter pilots, with Sub-Lieutenant Anamika B Rajeev becoming the first to get the “golden wings” at the passing-out parade at the naval air station INS Rajali at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu.
In another milestone, Lieutenant Jamyang Tsewang, the first officer from Ladakh to be commissioned into the Navy, also successfully graduated as a qualified helicopter pilot.
The two were among the 21 pilots of the 102nd helicopter conversion course to be awarded the “golden wings” by Eastern Naval Command chief Vice Admiral Rajesh Pendharkar at the parade on Friday.
The naval pilots underwent the 22-week training programme at INS Rajali after initial training with the IAF. While the Navy already has women pilots flying the Dornier-228 maritime patrol aircraft, Sub-Lt Rajeev is the first to gain entry into the force’s helicopter fleet that includes Chetaks, Sea Kings, Dhruvs and the spanking new submarine-hunting MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, which are armed with Hellfire missiles, MK-54 torpedoes and precision-kill rockets.
There are already 19 women flying fighters like MiG-21s, MiG-29s, Sukhoi-30MKIs and even the new omni-role Rafales in the IAF, while there are over 145 women helicopter and transport aircraft pilots in the IAF, Army and Navy. The Navy, of course, has also deployed around 50 women officers on frontline warships.
While women are still not allowed to join the infantry, armoured corps and mechanized infantry in the Army, women officers are now also being commissioned in the Regiment of Artillery, which has over 280 units handling a variety of howitzers, guns and multiple-launch rocket systems, as was first reported by TOI.
While women officers have been inducted into the over 14-lakh strong armed forces since the early-1990s, they number just over 4,000 (around 1,710 in Army, 1,650 in IAF and 680 in Navy) in their 65,000-strong officer cadre. There are separately around 1,670 women doctors, 190 dentists and 4,750 nurses in the military medical stream as officers.